Amy Schumer can’t seem to stay away from controversy this year (or last…or the one before that). In true Amy Schumer fashion, she is once again under fire for cultural appropriation and insensitivity. The latest outcry stems from a “Formation” parody video that Schumer filled on the set of her latest film alongside co-stars like Goldie Hawn and Wanda Sykes.
First of all, how dare she bring Goldie Hawn into this. Poor Goldie has just been living her life and finally gets convinced to make a new movie and all of a sudden she’s in the middle of an Amy Schumer issue. It’s not your fault Goldie, you deserve better.
Second of all, Schumer had to see this backlash coming. In recent months she’s dealt with Trump supporters heckling her at a standup gig and the Kurt Metzger mess (which still hasn’t been completely resolved to be quite honest). Now, the entire internet is mad at her for appropriating black culture with this Beyonce parody. There are so many Beyonce songs that aren’t so explicitly about race and police brutality, yet she chose this one anyway. It’s a conundrum as to where Schumer’s head was at while planning this.
In response to the outcry, Schumer has posted two mostly unapologetic and strange Instagrams.
In the first, Amy quotes “Formation” lyrics and uses Hillary Clinton’s campaign hashtag to prove that it’s all about women inspiring each other.
“You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation. Thanks for the exclusive release Tidal! We had so much fun making this tribute. All love and women inspiring each other. #strongertogether”
It comes off as deflecting for her to use Hillary Clinton quotes and lyrics from the video she is in trouble for appropriating. Further using meaningful lyrics when you’ve already gotten in trouble for it once might not be the best move, however the TIDAL thank you is a legitimately nice thing for her to shout out amidst the controversy. It should also be noted that Beyonce and Jay Z are intricately involved in TIDAL’s operations, so probably knew that Amy was planning this and posting it and either didn’t care at all, or not enough to make any sort of comments about it or refuse to release it.
The second gets a little weirder though, in that Amy denies that she is drunk or hight but certainly seems something more than “tired.” Her full comments in the short video are,
“I’m going to bed. I just wanna say, I’m sober first of all. No drinking no pot. I’m tired. Lot of work today. And I’m grateful. I’m grateful for all of this shit. I’m grateful to be alive right now, during this time. I hope you have a good night too.”
The photo is captioned with just the word “Grateful.” It’s a good message in theory – to be happy to be alive even when things aren’t going your way – but Amy doesn’t seem all there in the video so there’s a worrisome quality about it. Usually when people have to claim they haven’t been drinking or smoking, they’ve definitely been drinking or smoking.
This could finally be the time that Schumer learns from her mistakes, since so many people from all walks of life are against her choices here – not just Trump supporters from one state or a certain section of Twitter trolls. At the same time, if Amy got implicit approval from Bey herself she might not think anything of the anger currently being directed her way or understand the valid points about the song’s meaning and message that some are bringing up.
